missile strike.

[DarthLeon]

Ok, It was late on game, we were playing on an Islands map. Washington is across the sea from me, and I declare war on him. As Im sending my navy over, I notice that there are a bunch of destroyed tiles near my core cities.
I take a look, no aircraft did it. No troops did it. Then, I figured it out. Washington had sent a bunch of missile cruisers loaded with missiles, just out of my line of sight. As soon as I declared war, about 40 or so improvements were destroyed. Needless to say, that made me . I had to scavenge a huge navy to take out his 10 missile cruisers on my coast. The missiles were actually a very clever tactic.

Has anyone ever seen the computer use missiles this effectively before?

 

[HiroHito]

that wasnt very clever imho, best use of missiles is to soften enemy units/fleets and strategic ressources, cottages being too expensive to destroy, and not waste them on minor improvements (by minor I mean farms/simple mines) that can be rebuilt within a turn by a bunch of automated workers.

Still, 40 strikes are a LOT...of hammers.

 

[MrCynical]

The AI doesn't this very frequently in the late game, and I've seen salvos of 100+ missles thrown into my improvements. I don't think it's very smart though, as that should be enough to eradicate any conceivable defense in multiple cities. Granted destroying improvements (especially towns) will harm the economy, but it doesn't really get the AI any closer to capturing your cities.

As with pillaging, mass improvement destruction by missles is only sound if you're incapable of taking the cities themselves.